If not Harriet Tubman, then Who?

A year ago, researchers at Unanimous AI asked a group of users a very simple question:Which of these five deserving woman should be represented on the $20 bill? As you can see, each candidate received some consideration, but the group quickly arrived at an answer.

It seems the swarm was on to something. Yesterday the Treasury Department announced that, following a groundswell of support for Tubman, the abolitionist would be replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill over the new few years.

But how do those same voters feel now that the transition is to be made real? To find out, researchers once again turned to Swarm Intelligence to reveal the collective sentiment of the general public. Unlike polls, where everyone responds in isolation, swarms are real-time systems where the participants “think together” to converge upon a unified response that best reflect reflects the collective perspective.

One year later, UNU users once again felt that Tubman was a correct choice for the $20 bill. Moreover, they seemed to have little love lost for Andrew Jackson, who has been relegated to the back of the bill. Public sentiment seems to have turned on the former slave owner, at least according to UNU.

All of which seems to point to a clear acceptance of Tubman on the $20. And yet, one final question asked of the group reveals an interesting preference.

As you can see, despite fully supporting both Tubman’s placement on the $20 bill and Jackson’s removal, the group’s true preference would be to see historical landmarks on their currency. Given that this recent redesign represents the largest change to American currency since “dead Presidents” were installed in 1928, it seems unlikely that that will happen any time soon. And yet, if the Treasury is to learn anything from the waning support for Andrew Jackson, it might be that the safest choice would be to put the Grand Canyon on all American currency.

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